Governor of Uttarakhand Dr. Krishan Kant Paul launched a Satellite based Mobile – Citizen APP for the cleanliness of Dehradun, and to manage the garbage in the city under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on Tuesday. The software has been designed and developed by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS).
Being geo-enabled and said to be based on a citizen science approach, the application provides a complete end to end solution covering all aspects of garbage related redressal system as required in a “typical” municipal set up. Speaking on the occasion, Paul said that the software is facilitating a systematic solution for waste management by the municipal corporation of Dehradun.
A three-tier technical system has been prepared to enable identification of and clearing of garbage sites in a manner which also saves both time and money. This Cleanliness software is also included in works under Swachchh Bharat, Digital India and Smart City initiatives of the union government, he said.
Exhorting urban local bodies to make efficient use of the devices and technique provided through the software in public interest, the Governor also stressed on the importance of convincing people about utilization of this application also to enable ground level workers to make proper use of the facility. Copies of the software issued on the occasion were handed over to the Dehradun municipal commissioner Nitin Singh Bhadhauriya and leader of opposition in MCD, Neenu Sehgal.
The IIRS director A. Senthil Kumar and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Geo informative department official Samir Saran explained various aspects of the software on the occasion. They informed that the system consists of three applications including citizen app for reporting garbage location, web-based dashboard for visualisation, reporting, user/vehicle management, job assignment and GIS-based optimize route determination along with service (cleaner) application for garbage redressal.
The citizen app is an Android-based mobile phone application that enables a citizen to report garbage related complaints. One has to geo-tag the location using on-board GPS on the Android mobile phone, click a photograph of the garbage and fill details like type of garbage and description prior to submission. Citizens can also view authorized dumping sites—dumper placer (DP) and compact placer (CP) through the app.
The web based dashboard along with the citizen app facilitates the visualization of GIS layers like ward boundaries and locations of CP and DP. The dashboard application includes of modules like login, user management, vehicle and job management along with routing and reporting.
Using the routing module, officials can decide the optimal route for the service worker to follow to handle all complaints assigned in optimal manner. The service app workflow allows the cleaner to take the pre and post images of the garbage location and submit these to the server. Officials state that more than 3,000 garbage sites have been identified by university students using citizen app.
